Quarantined Planet by John Allen Pace Read Free Book Online

instructions.”
    “Maybe how he found whatever it is he found,” Nix adds, straining for a glimpse of the lifeless saucer coming into view.
    “Yeah,” Gordon agrees.
    Chloe’s monitor displays topographical images of the planet’s surface as the translator works her control pad. “Sending to your station, Gordon , ” he says.
    Chloe touches the hybrid’s arm. “Do you have a name?”
    He pulls away. It’s been a long time since another human has touched him. “Michael.”
    “Michael,” she smiles warmly while inside she’s troubled by the surgical changes to his appearance, “sorry for not asking sooner—weird day…”
    “So, Mike,” Tivis interrupts, “do you have any idea what’s down there at all?”
    “Earl’s down there,” Gordon answers.
    Sephora drifts into the shadow of the massive saucer-shaped alien craft. Chloe joins Nix at one of the small, rectangular side portals. From her seat in the back, Jane, who remains strapped down tight, bobs and struggles for a glimpse too.
    “There’s burn marks around her docking ring,” Nix observes, “couple of small windows missing glass.”
    Gordon stares down Tivis for a reaction, but all the man says is, “Hooray, he’s here.”
    “Nix, Chloe, Michael. Strap in,” Gordon orders.
    Sephora ’s engines fire, and she rockets toward the planet, zipping around, over, and through a thick layer of metallic debris, all of it covered in a rusty film. A couple of chunks bounce harmlessly off the ship’s hull.
    Jane holds on to her seatbelts like someone on a roller coaster about to go over the first hill. Nix is finally sitting. The tiny craft hits atmosphere, and fire fills her forward ports. She plummets into murky, electrically charged clouds. It’s difficult for anyone to see what’s ahead.
    “What the hell is that?” Gordon leans forward as his small vessel dashes toward a pink and orange bubbling mass. “That’s no bloody cloud.”
    “Go around it,” Nix says, leaving his seat.
    “They’re animals or birds or something,” Chloe interjects.
    Tivis agrees, “I think she’s right.”
    At the ship’s present speed, there isn’t time for her pilots to react, and Sephora plows right into a sea of floating, jellyfish-like creatures quite at home in the turbulent sky.
    Gordon had once owned the foulest mouth on New Earth, but when Chloe joined his crew, he banned any and all swearing onboard. “Shit! Hold on.”
    Great arcs of electricity erupt all around Sephora . Sparks flare up from her helm controls, and she rocks violently. Power flickers off and on.
    Jelly creatures splatter the forward ports with a horrible thud, and Jane puts her hands up, expecting one might come right through. Another hard bounce and Nix is thrown to the deck.
    "Nix,” Chloe begins releasing her seatbelts, “you okay, Nix?”
    “Yeah, stay there.”
    The ship’s engines sputter and whine as Gordon and Tivis struggle to keep her aloft. The jelly splatters stop, but the forward ports are now covered in a thick goo. The men are forced to fly by instrumentation alone and, not accustomed to it, ignore a critical proximity alarm.
    Sephora , trailing alien jellyfish goo and billowing smoke, barrels toward a valley of crooked trees. The dark forest soon swallows her up.
    A few moments later, Gordon and Chloe are the first to be roused. Smoke fills the powerless cabin, and all is quiet except for an occasional electric spark. Battery back-up lights click on.
    Gordon with all he can muster pulls himself up and attends to Tivis, who’s lying across the helm in a pool of blood. “T, show me some life, mate.”
    Jane rushes to the injured man’s side. “Tivis—Tivis, honey, wake up.”
    “Anyone else injured?” the Brit says after a cough. “Chloe, love?”
    “I don’t know yet.” She winces, having been tossed from her seat.
    “Nix?”
    “Never better, Gordon.” Ignoring his own pain, he hustles to help the dazed young woman stand up. “Chloe, you